On a sunny Sunday, my three year old son and I headed off to the North Wall to see one of the many offerings of the first ever Tiny Ideas Festival. I’d been made aware of the festival through work, and was thrilled that there was finally an option in
My son was 7 months old when we went into lockdown and since the end of last year, has had a lot of “firsts”. Hey Little Bird, was his very first theatre show, and the first for me in a long time. I was apprehensive and nervous about how we would deal with this experience; as any parent who has a “covid-kid” will understand, anything new can be quite overwhelming.
However, because Hey Little Bird was described as a gentle tale with music, joining in and puppetry, with birds made from a multitude of hats, I figured this would be our best shot at introducing him to the land of theatre and I have to say, their description was an understatement!
Emma Boor leapt on to stage and introduced herself to the nearly-full audience at the North Wall, and after telling us all about her hat shop, she went straight into audience participation mode and found a few unsuspecting members who had cold heads - mainly balding dads, but also me. I was selected to wear a tea cosy, which my son thought was hilarious.
Then we met the titular little bird, and found that our job for today was to help find their mum. But we didn’t know what breed the bird was, so we were off on a journey to find out. We visited the woodland, wetland and moorland and Emma told us some fascinating facts about the birds we met, even though they were sadly not the little birds mum (don’t worry, the baby bird finds its mum in the end).
Emma was brilliant at engaging the audience, ensuring the level of music and inclusion was perfect for the little people, but there were also some fantastic little quips that the adults got to snigger at. Balloons were let loose, much to the amusement of the children, and they all got given a little bird to flap around while singing a song in unison.
Most impressive, however, for both of us, were the incredible variety of hat-birds. Different voices matched the different birds, and Emma got us all to move our hands to mimic the style in which those animals moved too. My son told everyone about the “giant eagle” that Emma brings out at the end, and my oooohs and aaaahhhhs were not faked either.
As we were leaving the North Wall, Emma was there to greet the audience and say goodbye, which was a lovely touch. My son saw her, ran up to her, gave her a massive high-five and screamed 'THANK YOU EMMA!'
I can’t wait to see what Tiny Ideas Festival does next year, so my youngest can join us, but I’ll forever be grateful that my son had his first theatre experience with Emma and the little bird. I won’t forget turning to look at him and seeing how fully immersed and captivated he was with the antics on stage, a perfectly poignant moment for any parent.